Edinburgh: Day 2

Today our itinerary was packed full of Royal history. We began the day with a tour of Edinburgh castle followed by a viewing of the Scottish Crown Jewels.

 

After a quick pop into the gift shop, we walked across the courtyard to the Tea Rooms at Edinburgh Castle. During the month of September only they were offer a Homecoming Tea, so we figured we had to try that. It was a huge spread; way more than we had expected!

 

Yes, I did buy a British coat with teacups all over it, and, yes, I did wear it to tea at the castle!

On our way out of the Tea Rooms we came across a wedding party that was just exiting the chapel led by a bagpiper. So of course we crowded around with all the other tourists and took photos of them.

This detour ended up costing us a good view of the One o'clock gun, but we joined the back of the crowd in time to see (in Russ' case; hear in my case. Short people problems...) the canon being fired. Traditionally, canons are set off at noon. However, this means firing 12 shells. The Scots, conscious about finances, decided to fire their canons at one o'clock to save on the cost. Some might call it being tight, but they see it as being careful!

We left the castle and headed down the Royal Mile. We stopped into St. Giles Cathedral for a quick look at the place where John Knox preached. The interior is a lovely Gothic building with the four central pillars dating from around 1124 CE and many later additions to the building.

We continued our stroll down the Royal Mile until we had reached Holyrood Palace. We took a brief turn around the Queen's Gallery with an exhibition exploring Poet Laureates, particularly Carol Ann Duffy, followed by a live guided tour of the historic palace gardens. We then were able to visit the palace itself, including Mary Queen of Scots' apartments. It was pretty neat!

After we finished our tour of the palace we headed back up the Royal Mile, determined to stop by Cadenhead's Whiskey Shop for a tasting. We were met with disappointment again when we learned that they only do tastings on Thursdays. (Where was all my planning on this?! I don't know how I didn't figure this out beforehand...) In any case, the guy at the shop was really cool and talk to us a little bit about whiskey and the whiskey that they make. There were still spots open for their Thursday tasting, so we may tack this on to our plans for that day!

Having thoroughly enjoyed the Elephant House yesterday, Russ suggested we check out their dinner menu. (I'm serious. It really was his suggestion!) As before, the food was very good. Russ had the chicken and bacon pizza and I had very filling bruschetta with a salad. And I discovered that they make a great Scottish Breakfast tea- their own blend!

It seems I had not used the restroom before as I was surprised and delighted to find it completely covered from floor to ceiling in Harry Potter related graffiti! Thank you, J.K. Rowling. You changed my life as well!!